Beijing to survey disputed islands to ‘map territory’

This file aerial shot taken on September 15, 2010 shows the disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China in the East China Sea.

Photo: AFP

China is to carry out a geographical survey of islands in the East China Sea at the center of a bitter dispute with Japan, state media said yesterday.

The survey of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — known as the Senkakus in Japan, the Diaoyu Archipelago (釣魚群島) in China and also claimed by Taiwan — was part of a program to map China’s “territorial islands and reefs,” the Xinhua news agency said, citing a Chinese state geographical agency.

The maritime dispute, which has simmered on and off for years, intensified last year when the Japanese government nationalized three islets in the small chain it did not already own, triggering anger and demonstrations in China.

The protests were allowed to take place by the Chinese authorities in Beijing, who use nationalism to bolster their claims to legitimacy, particularly regarding Japan, which occupied parts of China in the 20th century.

The mapping exercise was part of China’s efforts to “safeguard its maritime rights and interests,” Xinhua said, without saying when it would take place or making clear whether it would involve activities on land, as opposed to sea-based surveying.

It quoted Zhang Huifeng, an official with the Chinese National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, as saying that there could be “difficulties.”

“There are some difficulties in landing on some islands to survey and in surveying and mapping the surrounding sea area of the islands, because some countries infringed and occupied these islands of China,” he said.

Both Tokyo and Beijing have scrambled fighter jets to the area in recent weeks in a further escalation of the row, though no actual clashes have taken place.

China’s armed forces have been instructed to raise their fighting ability this year and “should focus closely on the objective of being able to fight and win a battle,” state media said.

This year, “the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] and the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force should focus closely on the objective of being able to fight and win a battle,” said a report in the overseas edition of Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily.

The directive came in a document released at the beginning of the year by the PLA General Staff on military training this year, added the report, republished from a Web site linked to a PLA newspaper.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK on Monday reported that Japan will deploy two more patrol ships to boost its defense of the islands and has conducted its first drill simulating the recapture of an isle seized by enemy forces.

Xinhua said that the survey was part of a program begun in 2009 and that by the end of last year, China had completed the identification and “precise positioning” of approximately 6,400 islands.

In September last year, China announced the “base points and baselines of the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands,” filing details with the UN as part of the diplomatic sparring over the issue.

Within days, the Chinese State Oceanic Administration released geographic information about the islands in what Xinhua called a “new move to affirm China’s sovereignty.”

The data included “the exact longitude and latitude of Diaoyu Island (釣魚島) and 70 of its affiliated islets,” along with “location maps, three-dimension effect graphs and sketch maps for the Diaoyu Islands,” Xinhua added.